Matthew 7:3-5 ” And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
If we are honest with ourselves we must admit that for many of us, most of our attention, our thought life is concerned with somebody else. To the extent that we ignore or miss what God wants to do in our own life. The bible gives us a piece of advise that would help our everyday life, because it’s the truth. And the truth of the matter tells us God’s response is always to look at yourself first, when it comes to judgement. To examine our own heart first. It’s funny how we often judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. Someone wrote, Why is it that my dirt is never as dirty as your dirt from my viewpoint. And my sin never seems as sinful as your sin either. It’s weird how we have a tendency to exaggerate the faults of others while at the same time minimizing our own. John Stott said we need to be critical of ourselves as we often are of others, and as generous to others as we are to ourselves. Jesus put it like this in Matthew 7:12 ” Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” William McDonald said a habitual fault finder is a poor advertisement for the Christian faith. Oswald Chambers notes, Who would dare stand before God and say My God, judge me as I have judged my fellow men? We so often judge our fellow men as sinners, if God should judge us like that, we would be in hell. So often when a person does wrong, or even does us wrong, yet that person repents and receives forgiveness from God, we still look at that person and treat that person in the wrong manner. I dare to say criticism may be one of the most wide spread problems among one another. It is something we indulge in without much guilt. Because we disguise it. But as mentioned in previous blogs we must develop a self-sacrificial love. It moves us from judging to loving. It moves us from criticizing to uplifting. It moves us from pointing fingers to looking in the mirror. And in Jesus message on the mount, Jesus points out the need for us to pay attention to our own spiritual condition before we take it upon ourselves to point the finger at someone else. This is a hard truth to admit, it is a hard lesson for us to learn, it is even harder to put this truth in place in our life. This is because if we start sweeping around our own front door, if we start turning over our own trash pile, if we start sorting through our own garbage, the mess, the broken branches and dead leaves inside of our own soul will bring us face to face with some not so pleasant facts about who we are and how much we need to be cleaned up. Sometimes we need to look in the mirror!! In John 8:1-11 the Pharisees bring a women caught in adultery to Jesus tempting Him on what He would do with this woman. Jesus bends down and writes in the sand and as He lifts up says He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. I wonder how many of us could cast the first stone? So many times we are so quick to be judge, jury and executioner over somebody else’s imperfectness but when we are the one in the spot light we feel like we have been done wrong. What a powerful picture we have here as Jesus doesn’t say throw stones, but says he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. The only one left was Jesus, because He is the only one that can see clearly. So remember we shouldn’t be one throwing stones when we are the ones who need to be stoned. We shouldn’t be pulling the mote out of our brother’s eye when we have a beam in our own eye.
By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just entitled to as we are. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Pastor's Reflections Along the Path of the Truth 